Loeb wins WRC Japan
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Loeb wins WRC Japan
Updated: Sep. 3, 2006, 2:19 PM ET
Loeb earns record 27th career win at Rally of JapanReuters
TOKYO -- Double world champion Sebastien Loeb clinched a record 27th career victory on Sunday when he won the Rally of Japan for the first time to tighten his stranglehold on this year's championship.
The Frenchman, driving a Citroen for the Kronos team, beat Ford's Marcus Gronholm by 5.6 seconds after 27 stages on the loose gravel roads around Obihiro in the northern island of Hokkaido.
Loeb, who now leads the Finn by 33 points with five rounds of the championship remaining and a third title in a row all but won, already held the records for most wins in a single season (10) and most in a row (six).
He had shared the record of 26 wins with retired Spaniard Carlos Sainz.
However, the 32-year-old Loeb has taken less than four years to rack up his record tally of wins since his first in Germany in 2002 and can be expected to take many more as the sport's dominant driver.
"Oh I don't know. Hopefully," the 'Michael Schumacher of rallying' told reporters when asked whether he was now the best driver in the history of the championship.
Ford's Mikko Hirvonen, Gronholm's teammate and compatriot, finished the rally in third place.
He also won the final super-special, the only driver other than Loeb and Gronholm to win stages in Japan this year.
Australian Chris Atkinson finished fourth for Subaru, who struggled with brake problems in their home event, with Austrian Manfred Stohl fifth in a Peugeot.
Even though i'm not a Loeb fan, passing Sainz for the all time win mark is really saying something. Looks like another world title for Loeb but it's still not technically over with five rounds to go and Gronholm 33 points back.
Loeb earns record 27th career win at Rally of JapanReuters
TOKYO -- Double world champion Sebastien Loeb clinched a record 27th career victory on Sunday when he won the Rally of Japan for the first time to tighten his stranglehold on this year's championship.
The Frenchman, driving a Citroen for the Kronos team, beat Ford's Marcus Gronholm by 5.6 seconds after 27 stages on the loose gravel roads around Obihiro in the northern island of Hokkaido.
Loeb, who now leads the Finn by 33 points with five rounds of the championship remaining and a third title in a row all but won, already held the records for most wins in a single season (10) and most in a row (six).
He had shared the record of 26 wins with retired Spaniard Carlos Sainz.
However, the 32-year-old Loeb has taken less than four years to rack up his record tally of wins since his first in Germany in 2002 and can be expected to take many more as the sport's dominant driver.
"Oh I don't know. Hopefully," the 'Michael Schumacher of rallying' told reporters when asked whether he was now the best driver in the history of the championship.
Ford's Mikko Hirvonen, Gronholm's teammate and compatriot, finished the rally in third place.
He also won the final super-special, the only driver other than Loeb and Gronholm to win stages in Japan this year.
Australian Chris Atkinson finished fourth for Subaru, who struggled with brake problems in their home event, with Austrian Manfred Stohl fifth in a Peugeot.
Even though i'm not a Loeb fan, passing Sainz for the all time win mark is really saying something. Looks like another world title for Loeb but it's still not technically over with five rounds to go and Gronholm 33 points back.